The present invention relates to a document feeder for an electrophotographic copying machine and, more particularly, to an automatic document feed for an electrophotographic copying machine which easily allows interrupted copying operation.
An electrophotographic copying machine produces an electrostatic latent image onto a photoreceptor corresponding to a pattern image of a document, such as a book to be copied. Toner particles are electrostatically adhered to the latent image so that the latent image becomes visible as a toner image. The toner image on the photoreceptor is transferred onto a copy paper via a transference charger. An automatic document feeder may be, if desired, coupled to the copying machine for automatically and subsequently feeding a plurality of copy documents onto a light scanning table to subsequently copy the documents.
Conventionally, while such an automatic document feeder coupled to the copying machine is being operated any copy interruption for copying one or more new documents, except for the documents piled on the document tray, may be difficult because it will take a long time to copy all of the documents.